While the principle of contact between children in care and their families is enshrined in law, the precise form and frequency is at the discretion of social workers and the courts. Professionals must seek to balance the twin principles of children's need for protection from the psychological, emotional and physical harm that may arise from having…

This article considers the launch of the Revised Best Practice Guidance 2010 by the Children Order Advisory Committee. The original guidance was launched in 2003 and the revised guidance reflects the changes in policies and practices over the past seven years.

Drawing on a three-year Irish research study, this paper focuses on the decision-making process in child contact, specifically the assessment and management of risk of continuing abuse to young people previously exposed to domestic abuse. A mixed methodological approach involved the completion of survey questionnaires by 219 mothers and the…

Ten years ago I wrote an article on the Children's Order, which was coming into force in Northern Ireland in October 1996. I examined the principles behind the Children's Order and considered how these principles interacted with the practice of family mediation (at that stage I was Coordinator of the Family Mediation service). Since that date…

A recent judgement in February 2005 by the Lord Chief Justice in Northern Ireland that a Health and Social Services Trust had breached a parent's Article 8 Right to Family Life in the process used to take a young child into care has stimulated major debate about the interface between the Human Rights Act (1998) and professional decision-making in…